Close digital divide, says POTRAZ

Published: 15 June 2018

THERE is a need to upscale the utility of wireless resources to close the digital divide in Zimbabwe and other African countries, Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) director-general Gift Machengete has said.

Machengete was speaking during the African Telecommunications Union (ATU)'s World Radio Communication 2019 (WRC-19) preparatory working group's meeting in Victoria Falls last week.

ATU's mission is to support member states in defining regional priorities for information communication technology (ICT) radio communications, standardisation and development sectors as well as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) plenipotentiary conference and implements at regional level all decisions, resolutions and initiatives adopted by regional and global conferences.

ATU works in close collaboration with and is supported by the ITU, regional economic committees and the private sector, in particular the ATU associate members.

"In a world where radio communications are playing a more and more crucial role in not only connecting people, but in connecting people to things and machines-to-machines; a world where the intelligence of mankind is increasingly complemented by artificial intelligence, cloud computing and the Internet of things; a world where big-data-driven autonomy is the emerging reality, we surely have to upscale the utility of our wireless resources to ensure that the digital divide is urgently closed and, above all, ensure that no one is left behind in this global transition to a fully-fledged information and knowledge society," he said.

Delegates discussed a number of topics that included the provision of additional frequencies to meet the rapidly growing demand for mobile broadband communications, regulatory conditions for the operation of earth stations in motion and new allocations for meteorological and earth-exploration satellite services for improved global environmental and climate change monitoring.

They also discussed enhanced maritime communications systems, facilitation of the use of on-board digital transmissions and automatic identification system on vessels for improved navigation safety and considerations for high altitude platforms.

The meeting, was attended by delegates from over 80 countries and was coordinated by POTRAZ, the ICT sector regulator.

Representatives from Nokia and Motorola were among the 100 delegates.

WRC conferences are held every three to four years and are administered by the ITU. It is the job of WRC to review and, if necessary, revise radio regulations, the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits.